Packed with features and boasting a compelling story, Injustice 2 sets the new fighting game standard.

The Injustice franchise is relatively young, but it's making huge strides within the fighting game genre. NetherRealm Studios' newest title delivers an engaging plot that isn't bogged down by convoluted sequels, prequels, and rebooted timelines, and boasts a multitude of modes on day one. In fact, Injustice 2 has one of the greatest offline single-player experiences ever seen in a fighting game. Factor in fun gameplay and rich combo mechanics, and Injustice 2 is the new premier fighter for Sony PlayStation 4, as well as Xbox One.

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The Injustice Universe

The Injustice 2 storyline, and its tie-in comics, represent one of the best tales produced by DC Comics to date. The familiar faces living in Superman's dystopian alternate future are expertly developed, and the emotion is heightened by breathtaking cinematography. The character models are highly detailed and borderline realistic, too, which is a significant improvement from the original game's wonky-looking fighters. I would easily pay the going ticket rate to watch the cutscenes edited together on the silver screen.

In terms of plot, Injustice 2 picks up seven years after the events in the original game, with Superman being jailed for his harsh dictatorship, and Bruce Wayne being outed as Batman. The game's viewed from Supergirl's perspective, and it's revealed that she's been in cryosleep since fleeing Krypton with Kal-El. She and other DC heroes combat Brainiac, Injustice 2's antagonist, as he threatens to terraform Earth in his mad search for knowledge. Injustice 2's story is robust, entertaining, and far superior to Street Fighter V's Cinematic Story Mode.

Mechanics and Gameplay

Injustice 2 utilizes a heavy, medium, and light attack layout, as well as a Trait button for unique character attacks. The unique attacks include projectiles, speed boosts, strength buffs, and teleportation. The character models look and move hyper-realistically, and the combos and cinematic super moves are a joy to execute. Injustice 2's deep move list provides a full breakdown of frame data and attack damage, which is a great for people who want to see which moves are the least punishable.

Injustice 2's gameplay is fast and frenetic—if you take the time to learn a character. The combat may feel disjointed if you simply randomly select a character without being familiar with its pacing and moveset. As a result, you'll encounter a learning curve if you're making the leap from competing fighting games, such as Street Fighter V or Tekken 7. Still, mastering a character is incredibly rewarding.

If you've played the original Injustice, you'll find that most Injustice 2 characters play similarly to their original incarnations, but with a few bells and whistles added to their already established play style. One damning thing I noticed is that some characters feel like blatant ripoffs of fighters from Mortal Kombat X, another NeatherRealm Studios title. For example, Batman plays like Scorpion and Green Arrow plays like Reptile. That said, the developers expanded those play styles to give them comic book-accurate tweaks. In Injustice 2, Scorpion's classic spear attack serves as the foundation for Batman's grappling hook move.

A new mechanic lets you spend super meter bars to roll, break combos, or quickly recover from oncoming attacks. These help turn the tide when you're getting relentlessly hammered by your opponent, and leave you with a chance to take the advantage. It adds another layer of complexity to the gameplay, as you must determine whether or not it's worth sacrificing a portion of your meter for a quick save now versus a high-damage super move later.

The new Clash mechanic also utilizes the super meter. Clash can only be initiated by a person controlling a character that has had its health bar lowered from gray to red, and the winner is the person who's willing to sacrifice the most available meter. The Clash initiator inflicts a huge amount of damage to the defender should he or she win the standoff, but should the defender win, he or she receives a health bonus. This mini-game is another way to change the battle momentum, and is a fine new gameplay addition.

Multiverse Mode

The Multiverse mode is a spin on Mortal Kombat X's Living Towers that uses the popular Infinite Crisis storyline from the comics as its foundation. The Multiverse screen is comprised of several large planets that have their own names and backstories. You cycle through the planets to view the challenges that they hold. Some challenges require you to use three special attacks during a match, or achieve some other criteria during gameplay, which net you terrific rewards.

Each planet has a timer that counts down until the world is removed from rotation and the next planet takes its place. All the while, you level up your character by completing challenges. Leveling up fighters lets you equip characters with gear that increases their Strength, Defense, Health, and Ability stats. You can also equip specific abilities for each character as rewards. It's here that Injustice 2 truly shines, as this robust mode melds the fighting and role-playing genre to create something truly groundbreaking.

You also obtain gear from winning fights under set conditions, and by winning bronze, silver, gold, and platinum Mother Boxes. The rarer the metal, the rarer the rewards. You receive Mother Boxes by earning a high score in battle. In-game currency, earned by playing Multiverse Mode, lets you buy Mother Boxes, too. And rare Source Crystals let you color your character's costume to match the new pieces, as to not compromise your outfit's aesthetic beauty.

Multiverse mode introduces grinding, looting, and farming to the fighting game genre, terms and actions that are typically reserved for RPGs. And it works well in this new context. I spent hours improving my character in this mode. Multiverse is a feature that I expect to see copied in future fighting games due to its addictiveness and high replayability.

Online Features and Final Thoughts

Injustice 2's online versus mode lets you fight other people from around the world in lag-free bouts. However, the mode's a bit difficult to find due to the game's many menus and sub menus. It's the direct result of the game being packed with so much stuff. To be fair, it's a relatively small gripe.

Overall, Injustice 2's advancements not only soar over its predecessor, but over the majority of other games in the fighting genre, too. Packing a ridiculous amount of content, including a single player experience that's crafted to perfection, Injustice 2 is the prototype for fighters to come.

Injustice 2 (for PlayStation 4)

About the Author

Isaac Rouse is a young squire in the field of games journalism, having produced content for sites, such as Huffington Post, Examiner, and 2D-X. In his spare time, Isaac is either creating music with FL Studio 10, watching movies, or immersing himself in geek culture. You can follow him on Twitter: @JokermanUno.

Injustice 2 (for PlayStation 4)

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